


Here There Be Dragons

by AuroraNova



Series: Ties That Bind [14]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 04:30:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6104959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuroraNova/pseuds/AuroraNova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Miles and Garak manage to play nice (mostly). Everyone plays in the sand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here There Be Dragons

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: Just after 4x06 “Rejoined.”
> 
> As always, I don't own anything and make no money. I just felt that after what I've put Julian and Jadzia through in the last two stories, they needed a little fun.

“I don’t know, Julian.”

“It’ll be fun.”

Miles was skeptical. Yes, the station needed cheering up, but he wasn’t convinced that Quark’s holographic sand sculpture contest was the way to go. On the other hand, Julian was finally showing enthusiasm for something again after his torture by the Elgania-Noki and Miles hated to spoil that.

In fairness, he would’ve been far more interested if Garak wasn’t on Julian’s team.

“Come on,” wheedled Julian, “I’ll cover the entrance fee.”

“There’s an entrance fee?”

“First prize wins half of the fees, second gets twenty-five percent, and third gets fifteen percent.”

“And Quark keeps the rest,” Miles guessed.

“Jadzia said she’ll join if I find a fourth for our team, and I think this would be good for her.”

Dax had also had a rough time of it lately with her capture by the Tal Shiar and her breakup (could you call it a breakup if they hadn’t been together in their current lives?) with Kahn. Miles felt his resolve crumbling in the face of helping two good people.

“Oh, alright, I’ll give you two hours. Just ask your boyfriend to behave himself. Who’s judging?”

“Captain Sisko. The sculptures will be presented to him anonymously. I heard Quark was going to keep fifteen percent of the profits, but the captain negotiated it down to ten.”

If the captain agreed to this, the Klingon war was bringing morale down even more than Miles had thought.

* * *

They met in front of holosuite 2 at their scheduled time. Garak was the only one wearing long sleeves and pants, which Miles thought odd beachwear but didn’t object to because the less of Garak he had to see, the better.

“Good, everyone’s on time,” noted Leeta. “Remember, you have two hours from when the doors close behind you. The goal is to make a sculpture yourselves, so using the computer to manipulate anything will disqualify you. Quark is monitoring for that. You’re only allowed to use the materials in the program, but you can use them in any way you like. Any questions?”

“What’s the theme?” asked Julian.

“Animals. Any other questions?”

They all shook their heads, so Leeta opened the holosuite doors. “Good luck!”

The program was a standard beach, not particularly remarkable. Miles put on his sunglasses, grateful that unlike real beaches he wouldn’t have to worry about getting a sunburn – the curse of the Irish. He wouldn’t track sand home, either.

“Animals,” said Julian in his thinking voice.

“That’s a good theme,” said Dax.

Garak asked, “Does anyone have a particular animal in mind?”

Miles said the first thing which came to mind. “Something low. A snake?”

Julian shook his head. “Too easy. A hippopotamus coming out of the water?”

The rest of them just stared at him.

“In two hours?” Miles asked, not thinking that possible.

“Fine, not a hippopotamus.”

“We could make a dragon,” suggested Dax.

Miles thought that was a decent idea. He didn’t have a better one, anyway. “As long as it was lying down.”

“That could work,” said Julian.

Dax turned to Garak. “Are you familiar with Earth dragons?”

“I researched the concept when reading _Beowulf._ ”

“So we agree on a dragon?” clarified Julian. “Excellent. I’ll start getting sand.” He grabbed a pail and walked toward the water. Garak picked up another pail and followed.

“I guess we’re choosing a spot, Chief,” said Dax. “It would save time if we’re closer to the water.”

“We should’ve asked if the tide comes in.”

They found a spot on dry sand and the four of them got a pile of wet sand. Soon Dax started giving the dragon its basic shape. Miles didn’t claim artistic talent and was happy enough toting buckets of sand. Meanwhile Julian shared a few more examples of dragons with Garak, who didn’t seem to care for them.

“These dragons are very convenient. Everything bad can simply be blamed on the dragons. One begins to feel sympathy for the creatures.”

Of course Garak would sympathize with dragons.

“Someone should get shells for the eyes,” said Dax.

“I’ll find them,” offered Miles, leaving Julian and Garak to their debate on the merit of dragons.

There were plenty of shells so it didn’t take long. He picked six so there were a few options, then grabbed a few dark shells for nostrils.

Last time Miles had used a beach program, he and Keiko took Molly, who loved it. She alternated between swimming and collecting seashells (a few of which they let her replicate), with a memorable interlude during which she insisted on burying Miles in the sand but for his head.

He missed them so much. Most people would say DS9 was close to Bajor, but it didn’t feel that way to Miles.

By the time he returned with shells Julian had joined Dax in shaping the dragon’s body. They still needed more sand, which meant that Miles had to work with Garak. He was sure Keiko would call this an opportunity for personal growth, but it was an opportunity he could’ve done without.

“It’s good of you to agree to this, Chief,” said Garak.

Miles glanced over to where Julian and Dax were laughing. “They deserve some fun.”

“Yes. That’s why I’m here.”

“Julian talked you into it too?”

“It certainly wasn’t my idea.”

Huh. Miles actually had something in common with Garak. Who’d have thought?

“You know, in Asian cultures dragons are viewed very differently,” he said, dumping sand near Julian. Keiko didn’t care for stories featuring dragons which ended up slain.

“That’s true,” said Julian without looking up. “Much more benevolent.”

“I didn’t know that,” said Dax.

Garak was unimpressed. “You humans often struggle to agree among yourselves.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Miles once again asked himself why he’d ever agreed to this dumb contest knowing Garak would be there.

For reasons he couldn’t fathom, Garak gave him a slight (and creepy) smile. “Of course it’s a bad thing. However, since I haven’t been able to convince Julian, I’m sure there’s no point in trying to bring you around to my way of thinking.”

Was that a compliment or an insult? On second thought, he probably didn’t want to know and busied himself scooping up sand. He couldn’t help but point out, “Anyway, I’m not the one using perfectly innocent comments to disparage an entire species.”

“Somehow I doubt you’re attempting a rousing debate for the pleasure of it,” said Garak, “so perhaps we should – what is your phrase? Agree to disagree?”

“Works for me.”

“There. We’ve finally agreed on something, Chief.”

“Two things, since we’re here to make Julian happy.”

“At this rate we might yet find a third.”

“I’m not holding my breath,” muttered Miles.

Garak replied, “That would be a foolish action.”

He really, really didn’t understand Julian’s taste in boyfriend.

* * *

“Five minutes remaining,” warned the computer.

“How are those claws coming, Chief?” asked Dax.

“I need three more.” Breaking seashells into claw shape was harder than he’d have guessed, and that was even with a fairly generous definition of ‘claw shape.’

Meanwhile, Julian had a stick and was using it to draw scales all over the dragon’s body; Dax was fussing with the snout; and Garak smoothed the sand around their sculpture.

To himself, at least, Miles admitted that Garak was so far not proving nearly as bad a boyfriend to Julian as anticipated. While the Cardassian was obviously not deriving any great personal enjoyment out of this contest, he gave it his best to help cheer Julian up, even coming up with the idea of using red and yellow seaweed to look like fire. (The dragon was done breathing fire and closed its mouth, because an open mouth was impossible to create with sand. Miles briefly pondered the significance of four adults coming up with a backstory for a sand dragon, then decided he didn’t want to dwell on it.)

It just didn’t compute. Over and above the fact that he was a Cardassian (Miles would freely admit to bias there), Garak had been a member of the Obsidian Order, no matter what he liked to say about being a simple tailor. The Obsidian Order! That was about one step away from dating a Borg drone as far as Miles was concerned.

Then again, you always saw the Borg coming.

Nevertheless, Julian was happy and Miles had to respect that. He reserved the right not to respect Garak, of course, but so far this relationship was actually good for Julian. Stranger things had happened, Miles was sure. He just couldn’t think of any offhand.

“Two minutes remaining.”

He handed the claws over to Dax, who’d prepared places for them, and dumped the rest of his shell debris outside Garak’s neat circle. Julian finished the scales and arranged the seaweed, which sort of looked like fire if you squinted.

He thought Molly would be impressed; if Miles was lucky he might convince Quark to give him an image for free, but that would depend on both on what the Ferengi thought he might get out of it and his general mood at the time Miles asked.

“Your allotted time has ended,” announced the computer. Dax tried to finish brushing rogue sand off a claw, but the program wouldn’t let her.

They stood back to look at their work, which Miles thought was pretty good.

Julian declared, “Here there be dragons.”

“ **A** dragon,” corrected Garak.

“Well, yes, but the saying is plural.”

Garak raised an eyeridge slightly but didn’t comment.

Dax picked up the sandals she’d kicked off when they arrived. “This was a good idea, Julian.”

After what the two of them had suffered lately it was good to see Julian and Dax happy. Miles decided it was worth dealing with Garak, who appeared to feel similarly. So apparently the Cardassian did care about someone other than himself.

All in all, this qualified as a success in Miles’s book.

* * *

Quark was in high spirits. Miles imagined he was making a nice profit on the drinks being sold in addition to his ten percent of the entrance fees. “The winners’ credits will be transferred to the team lead after the announcement,” concluded their barkeep at the end of his speech. “Now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for.”

He looked at his padd, which was for effect only because Quark had an excellent memory. “In third place… Sahkel, Fien, Polod, and St. Pierre.”

The three Bajorans and human whooped as the image of their work appeared. They’d created something that looked like an octopus except for the glaring difference that it had ten legs.

“Second place goes to… Bashir, Dax, O’Brien, and Garak.”

An image of their sand dragon flashed over the bar to a round of applause. Julian and Dax were grinning, obviously pleased with themselves. Garak smiled indulgently as he looked at Julian.

“I’ll split the credits tonight,” promised Julian.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Miles. “You paid the entrance fee.”

“This was a team effort,” insisted Julian, and if he really wanted, Miles wouldn’t refuse. He’d surprise Keiko and Molly by sending them presents.

“First place, winners of Quark’s First Annual Sand Sculpting Contest… Rinat, Shevchenko, Avlaum, and Mankaar.”

The Bajoran-human-Betazoid team deserved to win. Their sculpture was a sleeping mother hara cat with two cubs. Miles was impressed and he wasn’t the only one.

“That’s really good,” noted Dax.

“Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to all our participants. Remember, this month’s drink special is Tellarite kolsat. Flag the nearest waiter to take advantage of the special!” finished Quark.

Miles, who’d never expected to win, decided this contest had been a very good idea. Mostly because of how happy it made Julian (who hadn’t smiled like this since before his capture by the Elgania-Noki), but also because Miles O’Brien never minded a bit of bragging rights.

If no one else, it would impress his daughter.


End file.
